Marcus Mariota

Sometimes when you stream, you get House of Cards season 1, but sometimes you get Fuller House. We hope that our rosters are set at this point in the season, but injuries and bad match-ups happen and you may be scrambling around looking for streaming options and hopefully I can at least reach Netflix Arrested Development level with these recommendations for this week.

It’s not every week you get the starting RB on the best offense in football getting released, so if you haven’t signed up for the football tools here at Razzball, you’re really missing out on some of that sweet sweet DFS money. So, let’s get right to it.

Jimmy Graham, Thumb: After the notification went out that Graham broke his thumb in week 11 I think all of his owners threw their phones against the wall. Then a second notification went off saying Graham is going to try and play through it we all picked up our shattered phones confused. It’ll be interesting to see what type of metal claw the Packers medical staff rigs up to make Graham able to play. I hope it looks like Clay Matthews’s club hand with fake tape finger claws. My take: Won’t play. At least for this first week I don’t think he’ll be in the lineup until the Packers rebuild him. They have the technology.

For this week’s article I am going to try something new. Let’s get a conversation going on a topic that’s DFS-related but not particularly substantive (and thus probably won’t be the topic of discussion anywhere else). Is it a good thing that the Rams/Chiefs game won’t be on the main slate? I’m not talking about the general point about the value of having the MNF game on the slate (as they used to do a few years ago), rather, just specifically the Rams/Chiefs game, which has the highest total since 1986 and would have had numerous guys who would have been main cogs of your lineup had the game been on the slate (Gurley, at his slightly lowered price of $10,600, and Tyreek Hill at $7,900 would have been two monster plays, Kelce at $7,800, Woods at $7,500, and Cooks at $7,800 would have been expensive pieces but reasonable plays, Josh Reynolds at $5,000 would have been an interesting punt, and while Patrick Mahomes at $9,500 may have been priced out of viability, Jared Goff at $8,300 would certainly be in the conversation). So, what say you, my loyal readers? Feel free to post as to whether you think it’s a good thing or a bad thing that the Rams/Chiefs game isn’t on the slate (or if you think it’s good for cash games, bad for GPPs, or vice versa, that’s certainly an interesting take too). I’d love to hear everyone’s opinion on this…

Week 11 is upon us and another heavy bye week for us to manage with 6 teams on bye. Luckily, week-12 is the last of the byes with just two teams off.

Only one new name to talk about this week, but we’ll touch on a couple of repeat offenders that are worth updating. Since it is a light week, I start you with a few nuggets heading in to your playoffs. Let’s win you a championship or at least some money if your league pays more than first place.

All of you fall in to one of the following buckets: playoff spot locked up, fighting/jockeying for a final spot, or no chance at all. If you are fighting to lock up a playoff spot, you need to win now and dominate your weekly matchups. The focus is on finding every extra fantasy point you can grab. Is there a better defensive matchup for you to stream? What about a kicker? Maybe even a better QB matchup if you are juggling middle tier QBs on your roster. I’ve seen players like Marcus Mariota, Carson Wentz, Russel Wilson and somehow Mitchel Trubisky pop on waivers as league-mates manage byes. Dak Prescott has a couple of nice matchups down the stretch. If you have a bench warmer that has not or will not hit your starting lineup this season then you should not hesitate dropping him. If it means getting better for a one week matchup then make the move. This needs to be your mentality as we head down the stretch. Scratching and crawling for every point to lock up your final playoff spot.

If you are lucky enough to have a playoff spot locked up then you need to take advantage of the luxuries that come along with it. Do not fall asleep at the wheel. You have worked your tail off to get to this point. My nuggets for you– grab your handcuff now and pick up a defense with a juicy week 14, 15, or 16 matchup. If you know you are getting a bye then only focus on the weeks you will be playing. Even if it is just a nice one week matchup. Don’t worry about having a defense that has a sweet matchup this week. Does it really matter if you finish 3 or 4th seed if you know you are going to make it either way?

Here are a couple of defenses that have plus matchups: Steelers vs Oak (WK14,) Texans vs Jets (WK15), Bills vs NYJ & DET (WK14,15), Titans vs NYJ, JAX, NYG, & WSH (WK13-14-15-16). I really like the Titans D heading down the stretch and they are on waivers this week with a matchup against Andrew Luck and the Colts.

If you fall in the last bucket and have no chance, don’t give up. It is your goal to ruin someones playoff hopes. Is anything more demoralizing than finishing last in your fantasy league? Do you have an embarrassing punishment for finishing last? Don’t let that be you.

I will wrap this up and get to your names. As noted before, reviewing your leagues transaction history is crucial. Look ahead to your playoff schedule and defensive matchups. Can you leverage a trade to bolster a weak spot on your roster come playoff time. This is the last week for trades in most leagues. Drop dead weight and pick up your handcuff.

As we approach the end of bye weeks, it is time to begin preparing your team for the playoffs. It is during bye weeks and injuries that league size and roster size matter.

If you’re in shallow leagues with shallow benches, you likely are streaming these options each week and the tough decision is who to drop from your strong roster. In deeper leagues, you may not like your streaming options as it is likely the absolute bottom of the barrel. I bring up the playoffs because it is during this time, in these last couple of bye weeks and the last few weeks of the fantasy football regular season, that you can set your team up for the playoffs. If your league still uses defenses, it can be worthwhile to look ahead at match-ups and see what defenses can be streamed in tandem to cover you for the rest of the season. Same with quarterbacks. If you’ve been streaming QBs all year, it may be time to find 2 that you can swap in and out given their match-ups the rest of the season.

Cheerio everyone! We get our first taste of morning football this season as the Chargers and Titans head across the pond to give us the glorious 9:30AM EST NFL action we’ve all been waiting for. Let’s start with this game and touch a couple others that you should be keeping an eye out for.

Well that was one hell of a ride. My Bills had Houston right where we wanted them. And Nathan Peterman just… just… just did Nathan Peterman things and threw a pick-6. I really shouldn’t have been surprised when it happened. He has to have done that at least 2847 times by now in his 396 day career. Before I go on a long tirade about how bad Josh Allen looked before he got hurt, let’s just take care of this game in its’ entirety.

Rudy and myself talk about the week 6 slate. Rudy has had a fantastic couple of weeks and if you sign up for a 7-day free trial you can see his rankings. We talk about Saquon Barkley and all of his excellence as well as Marcus Mariota and all of the confusion. We had some connection issues so we had to break this puppy down into a two-parter. So that’s twice the information, ya dig?

Unfortunately, I can’t fit two podcast links into one single post so you can find part two in whatever podcast platflorm you use. I just don’t want to bog up page 1 with a bunch of podcast posts when we have so many other great things to offer on this Saturday morning.